01. Cambridge

02. Shiver

03. The Future Freaks Me Out

04. Indoor Living

05. My Favorite Accident

06. Perfect Teeth

07. Boombox Generation

08. Don't Call It A Comeback

09. Modern Chemistry

10. Capital H

11. Red Dress

12. Mary Without Sound

13. Autographs & Apologies

14. A-OK

I Am The Movie
Motion City Soundtrack

Bursting at the seams with creativity, this debut disk is bristling with electric guitars and swirling indie/synth sounds that flail and furl themselves between the melody lines. The lyrics are bright and clever, funny and tragic, with a wry wit and a keen knack for innuendo often offering the listener an original and skewed commentary on pop culture. Although the sound is by definition loud rock n' roll it's got an amazing sense of harmonic flow and an irresistible beat that's guaranteed to make your body move. Produced by Ed Rose (Get Up Kids, Ultimate Fakebook, The Anniversary), "I Am The Movie" will remind you of whatever you have ever loved about music, and transmit it's message of pure, earnest, Midwestern energy, directly.

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CATALOG DATA

No: #86679

US Rel. Date: 06/24/2003

EU Rel. Date: 06/23/2003

Type: Full

KERRANG!

Rae Alexandra

Rating: KKKK Kicking ass with pop melodies? It can be done! When the Get Up Kids incorporated Moog keyboards into their 1999 emo-punk masterpiece "Something...

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Punknews.org

Staff

Rating: **** What could possibly be the biggest rags-to-riches success story in the coming months might very well be the biography of one Motion City...

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Rating: ****
What could possibly be the biggest rags-to-riches success story in the coming months might very well be the biography of one Motion City Soundtrack. Starting from humble beginnings in Minneapolis, and clawing and scraping their name into the respectability column of so many scenester's minds, the band's vision is finally realized with this, the album they've always wanted.

What's that, you say? The band already released this album last year by themselves? Well, you're correct, but this album has almost a completely different feel. For starters, the packaging is 100% different [but still just as creative, with a gorgeous layout including transparency paper].

As for the music itself, the songs have received a fresh coat of paint in the form of re-recorded bass parts as well as some bells and whistles here and there [most notably the addition of a tambourine in "Mary Without Sound"]. The whole album has been beefed up a bit production-wise by Ed Rose once again, so each song shines even more than it did before.

Now for those of you who were smart enough to buy the self-released version of the album [and haven't sold it on eBay yet], you might wonder why you should drop another 12 bucks to pick up what you may believe is the same disc. Well, for starters, the band removed "1000 Paper Cranes" from the tracklisting and added 4 different songs in it's place. Since you can read about what I thought about the original album here, I'll spend the majority of the review focusing on these new songs.

Perfect Teeth - this is sort of a "The Future Freaks Me Out" part two, with nostalgic lyrics coupled with an insanely catchy vocal line delivered by lead singer Justin [whose voice has gotten way better since he recorded the original batch of songs a year or so ago]. Super catchy, thumbs up.

Modern Chemistry - Clocking in at barely 2 minutes, the song seems almost like an afterthought; the music is rather repetitive, but on subsequent listens, the lyrics really grow on you. The buildup of the last chorus is rather powerful, too, and it's hard not to play air drums along with it. Oh yeah, and you can't go wrong with falsetto "Oohs" ever. Ever.

Capital H - This received my first "You gotta be kidding me!" award in recent times, as the song has been recorded a record third time for three separate releases [Their self-titled EP and their split CD with Schatzi both had different recordings of the song]. MCS decided to once again record what used to be my favorite song by them, and by this point it's had a lot of it's life sucked out of it. I'll always be the scenester and say the first version was the best, but that's just me. Basically, this is one of the band's catchiest songs they've ever written, and it is a smart addition to the album overall, considering this will be most peoples' first taste of MCS.

Autographs & Apologies - this song has been a live favorite in the band's set for the past few tours, and it showcases the group's darker side of their MOOG-pop. If it's a taste of things to come for the quintet, then I want to eat the whole thing.

When I first reviewed this album last December, I enjoyed it a lot but wasn't in love with it for reasons I couldn't place my finger on. With the re-release sounding so much sharper and crisper, plus the addition of 4 more tracks which all get a thumbs up, the album has inched up on my scale. This could very well be the quintessential summer CD for your car stereo, along with Spitalfield's "Remember Right Now." Check it out.

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Average Fan Rating: 5.00

Henrik91

06/13/2007

To bad

I hate it when they release bonus tracks on the UK or Japan versions of the albums. Why cant they just pass out all the new songs on one album, and not some songs there, and one other there. To bad =/

TheOtherOne

12/08/2005

This is one of the best albums ive ever heard their keyboardist is crazy!

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I Am The MovieMotion City Soundtrack

I Am The MovieMotion City Soundtrack

LATEST NEWS

CATALOG DATA

MORE

KERRANG!

Rae Alexandra

Punknews.org

Staff

Henrik91

06/13/2007

To bad

TheOtherOne

12/08/2005

I Am The Movie
Motion City Soundtrack

I Am The Movie
Motion City Soundtrack